Home-based Business Seeks Rule Changes

GREEN OAKS — The Plan Commission is considering an ordinance that would permit businesses operating from private homes to have employees.

A request for the ordinance was made by John and Sue Bergeron, owners of Downeast Design Group, a planning and consulting business based in their home on St. Mary's Road, a major county thoroughfare.

The company does architectural space planning design for construction projects in Europe, John Bergeron said.

Bergeron said the firm has a permanent office in Moscow, where most of the employees work. But he said they keep their headquarters in their residence because the nine-hour time difference between Green Oaks and Moscow makes it difficult for them to keep conventional hours.

The Bergerons also employ a secretary and computer specialist at their home, which is prohibited by the current village ordinance.

The couple want the village to amend the ordinance to allow no more than two employees who don't live in the residence to work in home-based businesses on major thoroughfares. They also want amendments to the village ordinance on home-based business to permit them to build a 4,000-square-foot studio on their three-acre property.

Plan Commission members said last week that the Bergerons' request for the space amendment could be extravagant because their house measures 2,400 square feet. Also, preliminary plans for the studio do not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, as would be required for employees to work there, said Gerald Estes, the village's planning consultant.

The commissioners will discuss the matter on Oct. 8.

Though the Bergerons are technically in violation of the ordinance, there is no compliance action pending against them.